ELMS, New Car, New Look And New Line-Up For JMW
JMW Motorsport have the longest continuous appearance record in ELMS history and that will continue into the LMGT3 era with a brand new Ferrari 296 GT3 with a brand new look for the proud British team.
And there’s an all-new and all-British driver squad for JMW as John Hartshorne and Ben Tuck, who drove together at TF Sport in ELMS last season, switch teams and marquee for 2024.
The driver trio is completed by Phil Keen, the British GT stalwart returning to the ELMS for the first time since 2015!
Pro-Am Line-up Complete For APR
Reigning ELMS Champions Algarve Pro Racing team will field an LMP2 Pro-Am entry alongside a Championship-defending LMP2 (Pro) line-up in 2024.
Kriton Lentoudis, Alex Quinn and Richard Bradley will share the #20 ORECA 07-Gibson.
Lentoudis, aged 54, began by dovetailing Ferrari Challenge Europe with Historic motorsport outings in an array of iconic machinery including a Mercedes-Benz C11 and Porsche 956C, a Jaguar D-Type and a Peugeot 908 HDi FAP prototype. He won the Group C Championship Class 1 title in 2017.
In contemporary sportscar racing his most recent outings have been in GT machinery with the Blancpain GT Series, as well as the CREVENTIC 24H Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup, where he spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons before stepping up to the ELMS’s GTE division last year in 2023.
Sharing the #20 ORECA 07 will be Cornwall, UK-based Quinn, who is a relative newcomer to endurance racing, having initially taken the traditional route from karting to junior single-seaters.
Two seasons in the FIA Formula 4 British Championship yielded seven wins, 17 podiums, three poles and four fastest laps, as well as the 2016 Rookie title, but there have also been appearances in the BRDC British F3, Formula Regional European and USF2000 Championships.
The 23-year-old went on to be crowned 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup Rookie Champion with two outright race victories, five podiums, one pole and a fastest lap to his credit, and he made an instant impact upon stepping into the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2023, as he comes to Algarve Pro as an LMP2 Champion.
“My IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship means I am carrying some momentum into my first European Le Mans season with Algarve Pro Racing,” said Quinn. “I feel endurance racing is my future and I’m really looking forward to another season in LMP2, this time on the opposite side of the Atlantic. I raced against Algarve Pro in IMSA, so I know how quick the team is and I count myself lucky to be joining the fold. APR is on top form and is currently regarded as one of the best teams in LMP2, so I’m thankful for Sam and Stewart Cox’s trust.
“I have already learnt a lot and I’ll bring those experiences with me, but I know I will develop further as a racing driver at APR. Also, there are some significant differences between American and European championships, the tracks being so dissimilar. In some respects, it feels like a different sport. As a result, it’s a little too early to set targets, but it’s going to be another competitive season with a high-calibre field consisting of ex-Formula 1 drivers and many from works Hypercar efforts. I’m excited about working with Kriton (Lendoudis) and Richard (Bradley), to get the best out of each other and enjoy a good year. We’ll only have an idea of where we stand in Official Testing, but you always want to win.”
Completing the #20 Algarve Pro roster is Bradley, who saw success in karts, Formula BMW, F3 and Japan’s Super Formula before diverting to sportscars in 2013.
The UK-born, Hangzhou, China-based driver is a race winner in the ELMS, Asian Le Mans Series and FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), but it was during his third season in Le Mans Prototypes that he reached a personal career high by translating pole position into a dominant LMP2 victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Bradley raced with Algarve Pro in the 2021 ELMS and is enthusiastic about rekindling his long-standing relationship with the Portugal-flagged team, saying: “I’ve known Sam and Stewart (Cox) for many years, having met way before I joined Algarve Pro Racing for the 2021 European Le Mans Series. I felt we started to get on top of things towards the end of that season and achieving the team’s first ELMS podium as APR in the Portimao finale is a really good memory.
“We went in different directions after that and it has been incredible to see the success APR has had since. I’m excited to be back, I’m looking forward to meeting Alex (Quinn) and it will be great to work with Kriton (Lendoudis), who I first got to know in a coaching capacity and is now a friend.”
Bradley added: “LMP2s are my bread and butter, having raced them for more than a decade, and it will be extremely rewarding to help Kriton on his first venture in the category. It’ll be a steep learning curve, but he’s an experienced, committed campaigner who takes his racing seriously and, honestly, I think he’s capable of pulling off a surprise against the best Am drivers in the world who have thousands of kilometres in the cars. On the whole, experience has taught me not to make any predictions. You just have to do the best possible job with what you’re given.”
Single Seater Racer Bolukbasi joins DKR
2023 Super Formula and ex E-sports racer Cem Bolukbasi from Turkey joins the multi-title winning with the DKR Engineering outfit for the 2024 ELMS as part of their returning LMP2 effort.
Bolukbasi will join Tom van Rompuy aboard DKR’s #3 Oreca 07 Gibson, the team’s third driver for what is a Pro-Am entry still to be confirmed
The Turkish racer will then start his first full-season in the ELMS after appearing as a one-off part of Eurointernational’s 2-021 line-up in LMP3
Iron Dames Porsche
Michelle Gatting, Sarah Bovy and Rahel Frey will pilot this Porsche 911 GT3R for the 2024 European Le Mans Series, the car prepared by Proton Competition for the all-female crew.
